And now for Mary herself: how did she strike the new acquaintances that her parents were making? One who knew her well tells us that “she showed in her countenance, and in her mild self-possession, that she was no ordinary child; and with her sweet smile, her gentle temper, her animated conversation, her keen enjoyment of life, and her incomparable voice—“that excellent thing in woman—there were few of the prettiest children of her age who won so much love and admiration from their friends young and old as little Mary Mitford.” In one of Miss Mitford’s tales entitled _My Godmothers_ there is an amusing account of a stiff maiden lady of the old school by name Mrs. Patience Wither (the “Mrs.” being given her by brevet rank). “In point of fact,” writes Mary, “she was not my godmother, having stood only as proxy for her younger sister, Mrs. Mary, my mother’s intimate friend, then falling into a lingering decline. “Mrs. Patience was very masculine in person, tall, square, large-boned and remarkably upright. Her features were sufficiently regular, and would not have been unpleasing but for the keen, angry look of her light blue eye ... and her fiery, wiry red hair, to which age did no good,—it would not turn grey.... She lived in a large, tall, upright, stately house in the largest street of a large town. It was a grave looking mansion, defended from the pavement by iron palisades, a flight of steps before the sober brown door, and every window curtained and blinded by chintz and silk and muslin, crossing and jostling each other. None of the rooms could be seen from the street, nor the street from any of the rooms—so complete was the obscurity. “On the death of her sister Mrs. Patience ... was pleased to lay claim to me in right of inheritance, and succeeded to the title of my godmother pretty much in the same way that she succeeded to the possession of Flora, her poor sister’s favourite spaniel. I am afraid that Flora proved the more grateful subject of the two. I never saw Mrs. Patience but she took possession of me for the purpose of lecturing and documenting me on some subject or other,—holding up my head, shutting the door, working a sampler, making a shirt, learning the pence table, or taking physic....